ReplayTV launches ReplayTV Personal HD
Well, it looks like the leak and my speculation from the other day were both accurate. ReplayTV officially announced the ReplayTV Personal HD bundle with a press release yesterday. As speculated, it is a USB 2.0 NTSC/ATSC tuner bundled with a basic HD antenna, a remote control (in PCCard form factor for easy storage in a laptop), and the ReplayTV PC-based software. It has a $99.95 MSRP, which includes one year of guide data - after that it is $19.95/year. It is supposed to ship in November. It does appear to be the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950 repackaged, as suspected.
Overall, I’m not impressed. There is nothing new or unique here, you can get the same hardware from Hauppauge, or re-branded from Elgato as well. This is Windows-only and only handles NTSC/ATSC from antenna, or analog cable. They’ve just bundled the existing ReplayTV PC-software with the existing Hauppage dongle and a generic remote. Not that exciting.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, the ‘ReplayPC’ software is a lame duck and there are several better options. This is not the ReplayTV of old.
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September 21st, 2007 at 23:30
The problem with these USB HD devices is that the off air antenna included in the package is totally useless. I guess the tuner itself is ok, but the antenna is worthless unless you live on a broadcasting tower.
There is no good solution to this. If you try a serious antenna (like terk or channelmaster) you will see a striking difference in reception. However, with these antennas the mobility (the only advantage of a USB tuner) is lost - they are simply too large to carry them with a laptop.